Today we were greated with another guest speaker who works in the heart of the media industry. Ollie Allgrove is an executive producer working for an visionary advertisement company The Mill.
The Mill specialises in VFX, colour, and designing. In 2014, they won an Oscar for their visual effects on the film 'Gladiator'. They make characters, cars, explosions etc.
In particular, they recently created an advert for SSE, involving an orangutan created completely from CGI.
The Mill created specialised technology to make a believable animal.
Allgrove started breaking into the film industry as a runner, and in the art department, making sets and putting them on film. This taught him about the industry and how it works.
He stated that the Mill are artists, technologists and makers for all media, working at the frontiers of visual narratives. In summary, they try to make the impossible, possible.
He discussed with us the music video industry. The key ingredient is communication and getting those ideas out there. Typically music videos were quite challenged on a budget. 10 years ago music videos were on the decline - the budget was low, youtube didn't exist, and brands had no care for them.
However, since the popularity of Youtube increased, music videos are bigger than ever. The industry has almost turned into a competition for worldwide attention and views.
In order to land the job of directing and creating a music video, you're going to have to think of your idea, how to produce, cut, finish and deliver the product.
The artist has the ability to choose who they want to work with. This is where the treatment comes in. Allgrove explained that the treatment is 'like a love letter to the artist'. It is the most valuable piece of communication between everyone, and covers what you're going to produce and why you're going to produce it. The treatment will support your intentions of convincing the artist that what's in your head is achievable. To make an effective treatment, it must be balanced with what you're saying in the text and with images to support them.
Allgrove claimed that anything with the right attitude and a budget is possible. He talked about Dan Lowe, a successful director who created a music video for Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong's 'Lucio starts fires'. He visioned a point of view shot of someone floating down a building. This would have approximately cost £145k, with rigs and stunt men etc. Instead, Lowe used weather balloons that cost just £145. Allgrove suggested that to be effective, there must be a balance between pushing an idea and finding a solution to the problem.
A more recent project that the Mill worked on is the Chemical Brother's 'Wide Open'. The idea itself was very simple, but 7000 visual effect frames were created to execute it. To create the idea, the artists scanned the ballerina, and build the model. The filming itself was extremely cheap, with only 4 takes required. The whole project cost roughly around £10k
Allgrove claimed that it's all about the simplicity, if it simple its easy to understand. If you've failed to hook the artist into your idea within the first 3-4 pages of your treatment its not gonna work. The relationship between the director and the producer is to get the idea out of your head, so never throw an idea away. You must be able to take whats in the director's head and sell it.
Overall the experience of meeting an executive producer in the industry has been insightful. I learned a lot about the process and what is required to make an effective video. Allgrove taught me that the value of music videos in the industry, is to bring in new talent, artists, directors and production teams.
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